Ghostly Nightmares
by reptilia28
Summary: Sarah Kerrigan has always lived a tragic life, but in the four years when Starcraft took place, her life went straight to hell. Is it real, or is it just one twisted nightmare? SarahJim.


This is my first attempt at a Starcraft fic, so please be nice.

I'd like to point out in advance that I do not own Starcraft: Brood War, I did not want to wait until Christmas to write this fic, and I didn't want to subject the only friend I have that owns SC: BW to the painfully tedious task of transcribing dialogue for me, so any Brood War scenes that show up are what I imagine happened, based on what little info I gleaned from my friend and various wikis. By a similar note, any in-campaign dialogue (i.e., something not in the pre-mission briefings) may be slightly different than in-game.

For those who might be wondering…

_**Blah**_ Telepathic speech.

_Blah_ Thoughts.

I own neither Starcraft nor Blizzard in general.

----

Sarah Kerrigan sighed in irritation. She was part of a team that was sent to assist the rebels fight the Confedaracy on Antiga Prime, and had to meet the newest member of the rebellion halfway. That in and of itself was not a problem; the problem was that he was _late_! Tapping her foot impatiently, she heard a distant rumbling. She checked the scope on her rifle and saw a green Vulture-class hover bike being followed by four marines. _It's about time_, she thought moodily as the driver climbed out of the vehicle.

"Howdy," the man in green marine armor said. "Name's Jim Raynor."

"Sarah Kerrigan," Kerrigan responded, instinctively using her psionic abilities to scan Raynor's mind. "I've finished scouting the area, and – you pig!" she gasped when she saw his less than innocent thoughts.

"What?" Raynor asked, holding up his hands in defense. "I haven't even said anything to you yet!"

"Yeah, but you were thinking it," Kerrigan said, raising her eyebrow.

"Oh yeah, that's right, you're a telepath," Raynor said, trying to cover his embarrassment. Behind him, Raynor heard the marines trying to stifle snickers. "Ha, ha, laugh it up, you monkeys," Raynor grumbled as he climbed back into his hover bike. "So, lead the way, Miss Kerrigan?" Resisting the urge to laugh herself, Kerrigan gestured to the east of their position.

"This way," she said as they went in the direction she indicated. _He's kind of cute…for a soldier_, she thought to herself, before shaking the thoughts out of her head. _Get a grip, Kerrigan, now is _not_ the time to be daydreaming_. She looked up to see a lone missile turret scanning the vicinity, rendering her cloaking technology useless. "Shit."

------

The last of her strike force had just reported that they had cleared the remnants of the Protoss presence on Tarsonis, and that the Psi-Emitter had been placed. As if on cue, a large swarm of Zerg poured in to destroy the Terran encampment.

"Great," Kerrigan said as she fired her grenade launcher at a Zergling, blowing it up, "now all we have to do is hold out here until the evac shows up." Her hopes were quickly dashed when she heard the next transmission.

"Everyone, prepare to leave Tarsonis airspace on my mark," the suave voice of Arcturus Mengsk rang through her comm. link.

"What?!" Raynor snapped angrily. "We're just going to leave her there?!"

"Umm, guys?" Kerrigan asked nervously, as larger and tougher Zerg began to swarm around her. "How 'bout that evac?"

"We're leaving, _now_," Mengsk said with an air of finality, and the line went dead.

"Shit," Kerrigan hissed, activating her cloak and proceeding to fire on the Zerg wildly. She destroyed several Zerglings, but for every one she killed, ten more took its place, until she was surrounded by Zerg and out of rounds. "Shit, shit, shit, shit!" she gasped, her Ghost training failing to control her soul-gripping fear. She saw a shadow drift above her, and looked up to see a Zerg Overlord hovering above her. She looked down at her hands to see her cloaking device flicker and die, revealing herself to the swarm. A couple of sedative-coated spines shot into her back, and she collapsed into darkness, another victim of the Swarm.

------

Kerrigan stirred from the darkness. She felt small, weak, constrained, and she hated it. She clawed at her prison, rage filling her mind, until she sprung forth with an unearthly shriek. She looked down at her hands, now tinted green with black, claw-like nails. She looked to her side and saw two bony, wing-like appendages sprouting from her back.

_**Do you like your improvements, my child**_? She heard a dark, rumbling voice asked within her mind.

_**Yes**_, Kerrigan responded psychically, _I __**enjoy them very well**_.

_**Excellent**_, the Zerg Overmind said gleefully. _**Now use them well, my daughter. Use them to slaughter they who have betrayed you. Show them the wrath of the Queen of Blades**_. Kerrigan's lips curled into a cruel, sadistic grin.

"Gladly." As Kerrigan stomped off towards her prey, she heard soft, distant chuckling. She turned around in confusion, but saw only her own underlings.

------

Kerrigan sneered as she watched the pitiful defenses of the Protoss crumble before the might of her Guardians on the volcanic world of Char.

"Come out, Templar!" Kerrigan shouted, addressing the Protoss priest Tassadar. "Do you always have your minions do your fighting for you?"

_**Meet me here, O Queen of Blades, and we shall finish this**_, the deep voice of Tassadar echoed in her mind, simultaneously showing her a raised area in the center of the region where she was. Kerrigan beckoned down an Overlord and sat within its ventral sac while the balloon-like creature drifted towards its destination. When it reached the raised field, Kerrigan climbed out and beckoned the Overlord away.

_**Shall we do battle then, O Queen of Blades**_? a baritone voice mocked behind her. Kerrigan spun around to see the skull-like markings covering the face of the High Templar Tassadar. Sneering, Kerrigan swung her claws at Tassadar's throat.

And it flew right through him before he flickered away into nothingness.

"An illusion?" Kerrigan gasped, before regaining her composure. "Are you afraid to face me, Tassadar?" she growled. Within her mind, she heard amused laughter.

_**So long as you continue to be so predictable, O Queen, I need not face you at all. You are your own worse enemy**_, Tassadar taunted before Kerrigan felt his presence drift away into the void. Standing alone on the field, Kerrigan screamed in rage. While she fumed, she heard the same distant voice she heard at her hatching.

"_I love you, Sarah_," it whispered, which only infuriated her more.

"WHO ARE YOU?! SHOW YOURSELF!" Kerrigan roared into the vast nothingness. She only received silence in response.

------

Fenix had just dispatched the last soldier of the United Earth Directorate, and he was exhausted. His weapons battery was almost out of energy, his shields were low and his Dragoon exoskeleton had suffered some physical damage. He began to stomp away when he froze, alarms blaring in his mind as a claw tore through his armor.

"'So long as you remain so predictable, you are your own worse enemy,'" Kerrigan quoted mockingly as she ripped out the life support mechanism within Fenix's exoskeleton. "That was a lesson taught to me by your precious Tassadar." She laughed sadistically as she threw away the part and walked away casually, leaving Fenix to twitch on the ground erratically as his body failed and his life slipped away.

------

Kerrigan laughed at the filthy, unshaven cretin that pointed a pistol at her in her own throne room.

"Look at you, Jim," Kerrigan said. "Look at what four years has reduced you to. From the finest hero the Terran Dominion had to offer, to a filthy, drunken space pirate who can't even hold a gun straight." Kerrigan slowly walked closer to Raynor, who held his hand steady, but seemed unable to pull the trigger. "Four years you've been looking through the bottle, telling yourself that you would kill me," she taunted. "But now that you're here, you're unable to do it. Why? Is it because you care about me? You think that there's still some shred of humanity left?" Kerrigan laughed evilly. "Sorry, but the Kerrigan that you know is no longer availa—urk!" she gasped over the bang of the pistol as Raynor fired a bullet into her chest. Three more shots cracked through the room as the lead projectiles penetrated her torso.

She wiped the black blood from her wounds, and with a shriek of anger, ran her arm through Raynor's body. As she felt her wounds slowly beginning to heal, she pulled Raynor close to her and whispered in his ear. "It'll take more than that to kill me, Jim," she whispered before extracting her arm and throwing him aside. She flicked scraps of flesh out from under her nails when she heard that familiar and annoying voice again.

"_Sarah…Sarah…Sarah…Sarah_!" the voice called, panic in its voice. Then Kerrigan felt a presence tugging at her mind, and she gasped in shock.

------

Sarah shot upright and into the arms of her husband, her body drenched in cold sweat. Before she could control herself, she broke down and cried into his shoulder.

"It's okay, baby, it's okay, it's over," Jim whispered soothingly as he rubbed Sarah's back. "Was it the same nightmare again?" Sarah shook her head, her face still buried in his shoulder.

"Different one," she sniffled. "It was so real this time, Jim. I dreamt I was taken by the Zerg. They changed me; they turned me into this monster. I killed so many people, Jim. Human, Protoss, I can still hear their screams. God, I killed _you_, Jim!" She broke down into sobs again, and Jim pulled her closer to him. "And what's worse, I _enjoyed_ it."

"Hey, look at me," Jim said, holding her face in his hands, his brown eyes looking into her green eyes. "_That's not you_. That was a nightmare, probably brought on by the stress from your job. Psychology can be very stressful I hear." Sarah couldn't help but release a choked laugh at Jim's stab at humor. "Tell you what, how about we fly over to Mon Sora for a month? No job, no worries, just you, me and the beach." Slowly, Sarah nodded before grabbing a clean nightgown and walking to the bathroom. "Aww, I don't get to see my own wife change anymore?" he pouted.

"Nope," Sarah said as she closed the door. She came out a couple of minutes later in a fresh nightgown and her tears wiped from her face before climbing back into bed. "I love you, Jim," she said as they wrapped themselves in each others' arms.

"I love you too, Sarah," Jim said as they both drifted off to sleep.

----

Well, this is different than what I've written before, so I hope I did well, and that you enjoyed it.

I'm negotiating with my friend to write another multi-chapter Starcraft fic, so maybe you'll see me again soon.

Don't forget to read and review!

EDIT: Reposted this with separators between the various scenes.


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